Looking Back on the Semester

Finals are over and Kelly and I are truly enjoying our free time together!

We are really glad that this semester is over. Looking back over the semester I realize that we have been through a lot but have also grown a ton from our experiences.

As the semester started I was taking a steroid drug that was supposed to shrink the tumor I had on my pituitary gland. I hated taking this medication because of all the horrible side effects. I was constantly exhausted, I got dizzy all the time, not to mention I gained about 15 pounds in the 3 months I was taking it. The worst part about the medicine was the fact that I was going through all of that for nothing because my tumor was not getting any smaller.

This semester we had to make one of our toughest decisions yet. Since the drug therapy was not working for us our next two options were surgery or radiation. We spent many hours praying and contemplating our decision. We decided that surgery was the way to go. Since pituitary tumors are not very common it was really hard to find a surgeon that was experienced with this type of surgery. 100% of the credit goes to my mom who spent countless hours on the phone and Internet trying to find the best doctor out there. We are so blessed to have found Dr. Kunwar.
*On a side note Kelly is so grateful to him he wants to name our first child after him...how do you incorporate 'Sandeep Kunwar' into a kids name?*

We were so grateful to be able to get into see Dr. Kunwar so quickly and set my surgery date for October 20th. We were happy that we were going to be able to get everything done so quickly but also quite nervous because it would happen so fast. The surgery has an 80% success rate and we were worried that we were going to be part of the 20% but to our absolute glee everything went perfectly and I am tumor free!

We have been told that it takes 3 months for all the hormones to go back to normal. I seem to be doing a lot better in that area recently and I am excited to finally be able to start trying to get pregnant. We have a post-op appointment with Dr. Kunwar on Dec. 19th and I'm hoping we'll be able to start some fertility treatments then. It is expected that it will be a bit of a challenge to get pregnant because of all the changes going on in my body but Kelly and I are in good spirits and are hopeful that pregnancy will happen quickly.

This was one of Kelly's toughest semesters yet and he did awesome even though he was traveling to and from California for my surgery. It really feels like such a triumph to be done with this semester, not just because it's a few more classes out of the way but because we finally got some good news when it comes to my health. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!